Author's Note: Alright, part two of the New Year's Party. What do you expect what happens? Most likely the last thing you expect. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.
Warning: Can't think of anything
Greetings
"Peacecraft? Wait, you're that princess, aren't ya?"
"I'm no longer queen," Relena said, smiling amusedly. "That was a long time ago and Romafellor is long gone. I'm the Vice Foreign Minister now."
"Still, ya look like a princess," Solo argued.
"Perhaps," Relena conceded but immediately changed the subject. "But, do happen to know a Duo Maxwell? You have the same last name; are you perhaps a relative of his?"
Solo struggled not to give himself away. Oh, he knew all about Relena, at least what Duo told him. However, from this encounter alone, he could tell this woman was smarter than the airhead descriptions Duo had given him. He didn't want to give Duo away unless Duo wanted to show himself, so he'd stall for a bit.
"I've heard of the Gundam pilot, Duo Maxwell," he answered. "Perhaps you could give me a description?"
"Well, I only met him perhaps two or three times," Relena admitted. "Let me think…I know he has a long braid of hair, almost as long as your hair. He's a brunette, has unusual violet eyes, likes to dress in black."
"Hmm, that sounds like the wanted pictures I've seen of him," Solo said. "But I can't really be sure who you're talking about. There's a lot of people on L2 who are brunettes and like to dress in black. Do you think he cut the braid off, maybe?"
"I…don't know," Relena admitted, looking as if the possibility hadn't even occurred to her.
"I'll have to ask the Kid if he knows anything about this," Solo mused.
"Kid?"
"A friend of mine. He came in a few months ago."
"Really…" Relena was starting to look a little uncomfortable at this point, for what reason, Solo couldn't fathom. These Earth people were strange… Relena's eyes scanned the crowd around them and gleamed when they settled on a certain individual. "Can you wait right here?" she asked. "I'd like for you to meet a friend of mine."
"Sure."
Relena disappeared in the crowd and Solo couldn't help but feel lonely for a couple minutes beyond Relena returned, dragging a blond man with her.
"Here he is!" Relena chirped cheerfully, stopping in front of Solo.
"Who is this?" the blond man asked, confused. Solo couldn't help but feel the same.
"Solo, I would like for you to meet Quatre Winner," Relena introduced. "Quatre, this is Solo Maxwell."
"Maxwell?" Quatre's aqua eyes widened as he examined the taller blond. Solo didn't know if his eyes were deceiving him but it seemed after a minute the other blond's shoulders sagged a bit, as if in disappointment.
"Is there something wrong with that?" Solo asked, a little nervous, knowing full well who this person in front of him was.
"No, it's nothing," Quatre sighed. "It's just…I have…or had a friend whose name was Maxwell. He disappeared a few months ago and no one has been able to find him since."
"Why'd he leave?"
"It's a long story," Quatre answered.
"Do you have anywhere else you need to be?"
"Well…no…"
"Then what would it hurt? You can tell me."
"Alright," Quatre sighed, his voice melancholy. "His name was Duo Maxwell, and he was one of the best friends I ever had. We were both—"
"Gundam pilots?" Solo asked, enjoying the look of surprise on Quatre's face.
"Yes…how did you know that?"
"I heard about him when he had been captured during the wars.'
Eyeing him suspiciously, Quatre continued, "Anyway, after the wars ended, we kinda went our separate ways. Duo joined the Preventers with the rest of the other pilots while I took over the family business. I was so swamped with work that I didn't have time to do anything else. I even forgot to sleep sometimes, even eat. I stopped taking calls a while back so I could concentrate on the business.
"When I had finally started to get some free time, I kinda spent it by myself. One day, I remembered that Duo once told me about this sport called baseball. I managed to get some tickets and clear enough of my schedule so I could take off and take Duo to one of these games. By that time, Duo was gone. I ended up giving the tickets to a couple that could use them.
"I tried to find him, to try and talk with him but no matter what I did, I couldn't find him."
"Did you even talk with him after you took over your company?" Solo asked.
"No, not really. The only person I've really kept in contact with was Trowa. I sort of forgot the others. It was a stupid thing to do."
"You're damn right it was stupid," Solo stated, surprising the blond. If Quatre thought he could gain some sympathy from him, he was sadly mistaken. So what if he was busy running the family business? If you didn't have time to do something, you made time. Compared to what Duo was receiving before he came here, he was drowning Duo in attention. He did that and managed to run this business.
"W-what?" Quatre asked, startled.
"You're Quatre Winner, pilot 04 of the Gundam Sandrock, the strategist of the pilots. You have unlimited resources at your disposal, a private army at your beck and call, and an enormous family of twenty-nine sisters. You practically have a Colony following after you blindly and you couldn't find one person to take up your duties so that you just have a five minute conversation with Duo? Your priorities are screwed up. I bet you think it's your fault there's no air in space."
Quatre's mind took this all in but it was the last statement that caught his attention. The only person who said anything remotely close to that was Duo. Was it a coincidence that this man's last name was Maxwell and his first was Solo? Solo and Duo…there definitely had to be a connection.
"What did you say?" Quatre asked, eyes narrowing. Relena, long forgotten, looked between the two blonds, wondering what this portended.
"What? That you think it's your fault there's no air in space?"
"Where did you hear that?" Quatre asked.
"That's a good question," Solo replied. "I think I'll have to ask the Kid about that. I think you said something like that once, didn't ya?"
"It's you, Solo."
Quatre froze. He knew that voice! But it couldn't be…could it? He spun around and came face to face with the object of his searches. And there he stood; the one and only Duo Maxwell. The braided brunette was smirking at him, holding two plastic cups in his hands.
He was speechless. He didn't need to look back to know that Relena probably was as shocked as he was. Duo walked around him, coming up to Solo's side and handing him one of the plastic cups. Solo smiled gratefully at Duo before drinking the cold beverage.
"D-Duo?" Quatre stuttered. "Is that really…?"
"In the flesh," Duo replied, not taking his eyes off Solo. He didn't need to know that the blond was close to tears. He could tell by Quatre's voice.
"How long have you…?"
"Before you started talking to Solo," he answered, now turning his eyes to Quatre. "So tell me, what's an important guy like you doing in a place like this?"
"I should be asking that question," Quatre countered.
"Solo owns it. This building belongs to him," Duo answered. "And you didn't answer my question. Oh wait, let me guess. You came here because of the stuff happening on L2, didn't you?"
Quatre didn't have to answer that. It was just as Duo said. He would have wanted to come to find Duo but it was too dangerous here for him to look on the streets, even with the increase in law enforcement. Many of the street gangs had banned together to try to repel the "Invaders" as they had termed them. In fact, he had been inside an escort of Preventers the entire time he had been here, outside of the party.
But he could tell from the bitterness in Duo voice that he wasn't happy to see him. He couldn't blame him for that. But what could he do to try and repair the damage? They had been friends during the war, closer than the other pilots until Trowa had been found with amnesia. He was willing to do anything to try and regain Duo's confidence, get his friendship back. Nothing was too good or too much.
"Hey, Duo," Solo said. "I'm going to go get a refill. You want anything?"
"Nah. You go on ahead. I'll hold up the fort here," Duo replied, leaning up and giving the blond a chaste kiss. Solo lingered before leaving. However, Quatre could tell that Solo's exit had been a polite way of giving them space. He was grateful for that. Now he could try to talk to Duo and see if anything could be done to salvage their friendship.
---
That had been tense.
Solo was still high-strung. There were definitely things the Kid had to do with Quatre. Whether he'd take the Arabian back or tell him to fuck off, Solo would leave that to him. Duo was a grown man; it was his decision.
Getting to the refreshment table, he had just reached the punch bowl when he was intercepted by the last person he wanted to see.
"Have you come to a decision?" Troy asked from behind, looking casual.
Oh how he despised that man! To think he was asking Solo whether or not he wanted to spare many orphans' lives as if he was mentioning the weather! Oh how much he wanted to take the punch bowl and drown Troy in it.
Unfortunately, he couldn't. At least, not without drawing a scene. He refilled his cup and downed the liquid before filling it up again. He turned to Troy, who was watching him steadily for his answer.
This was it.
"Yes, I accept your proposal."
---
Why was it so hard to stay mad at Quatre? Was it because he looked like a kid most of the time? Or did he inspire natural pity all on his own? Duo didn't know but he just couldn't hold a grudge against the guy.
After pitying the blond, who by then looked liked a hurt puppy, and nobody wanted to see that, Duo couldn't help it. That did by no means absolve him. He'd have to prove to him first…again that he could be trusted again. So, in order to divert Quatre's attention to something else, he mentioned the Earth's sudden interest in L2's state. Ah yes, political debate. Nothing could divert the Arabian's attention better than that.
Quatre was in the mindset that the aid coming to L2 was beneficial and would turn it around. Duo, naturally, disagreed. He was the expert on L2 here; he knew what he was talking about.
So, he pointed out the L2 elite, explaining to him how they made their livelihoods. The blond was appalled. He told Duo that he should turn them in. He responded that even if he did, they'd get off anyway. They covered their tracks well, knew how to use the legal system.
If he said it once, he'd say it again, the laws of the Earth and Colonies were just words and letters on L2. They were more worthless than the filth on the colony and the residences had even found a use for that.
He couldn't help but enjoy Quatre's look of horror when he pointed out Markus Troy and told him that he was responsible for the attack on the other pilots. For some reason, he didn't feel a shred of guilt at that. Then again, he was use to such scum. Quatre came from a more squeaky clean society than he had. He truly didn't know how low humans could stoop.
"Duo! You have to do something about this!" Quatre had said. "You know a lot and you could put these people behind bars!"
"You don't get it Quatre, everybody on L2 knows about these guys. There's not enough physical proof to lock them up. Even if I did bring up charges, my testimony wouldn't be enough to do anything and they'd get off scot-free. Things work differently here; I don't think all those 'reforms' are going to do anything to help."
"Do you really have that much faith?" Quatre asked softly.
"Listen Quatre, you think this is the first time the Earth has tried to fix L2? I can tell you they tried this twice when I was a kid. Take a look around. Nothing has gotten better. If anything, it has gotten worse. Even if you do get rid of the L2 elite, there's always someone else waiting to take their place."
Before anymore could be said on the subject, Solo returned.
"Did I miss anything?" he asked, pecking Duo on the lips.
"Nah, just a debate over the stuff happening on L2," Duo replied dryly.
"Sounds boring to me," Solo replied. "You want to get out of here? I'd rather spend the end of the year with you than with these…people."
"That sounds like a plan," Duo said, grinning. Dropping his grin, he turned to Quatre. "See you later Quatre."
That was it. That was all he had to say to him, after he had spent months looking for him; after their friends were brutally beaten and almost killed? Oh no, Quatre was determined not to let Duo get away.
"Wait!" he said and hesitated when the two turned and looked at him. "Do you think…I could join you?" he asked, anxious.
Now Solo wanted to go back to the room and get Duo into bed. Duo, however, couldn't resist the opportunity just presented.
"Sure, we were just going to watch a movie," he said, looking up at Solo's incredulous expression. However, that expression became mischievous as Solo figured out what his lover was up to.
"What kind of movie?" Quatre asked, anxiety leaving him, glad he was given an opportunity to regain Duo's trust.
"Just a comedy," Duo answered, suppressing an evil chuckle.
